


How To Win At Love

by raendown



Series: NaNoWriMo 2020 Drabbles [42]
Category: Naruto
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-06
Updated: 2019-11-06
Packaged: 2021-01-24 11:30:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 785
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21337525
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raendown/pseuds/raendown
Summary: He might be lazy in everything else but in love Shikamaru is willing to go that extra mile.
Relationships: Hatake Kakashi/Nara Shikamaru
Series: NaNoWriMo 2020 Drabbles [42]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1533161
Comments: 7
Kudos: 131





	How To Win At Love

Shikamaru paused in his steps for what felt like the first time all day and looked around, sweeping his eyes over the room one last time to make sure that everything was absolutely perfect. He’d spent hours cleaning, another hour rearranging the furniture to his own liking, and yet another couple of hours fiddling with the temporary additions set up just for tonight. Despite how many times he had moved it back and forth he still wasn’t sure he liked the couch where it was, pushed up against the far wall instead of underneath the window like usual, but it was too late to change it now. Kakashi’s chakra was already halfway down the street.

A wry smile touched his lips as he took in the full effect of his efforts. The place hardly looked the same but that was sort of the idea. He wished he could say that all of this had been for some special occasion but in truth it had become more of an inside joke than anything else. Kakashi had accused him months ago of going to too much effort when it was his turn to set up date night, a ridiculous statement considering how lazy Shikamaru preferred to be. But in teasing retaliation his partner had set up an even more elaborate date and Shikamaru’s pride couldn’t just let that be. From there things had kind of snowballed.

Now here he stood with both hands on his hips as Kakashi opened the door and smirked to see the man freeze between one step and the next, face dropping in to some combination of equal parts horrified and impressed.

“I might have to call mercy,” Kakashi said, looking up at the ribbons festooned through the beams of the ceiling. “You might have just won with this one.”

“What, too much?” Shikamaru asked with a cheeky grin. The hands on his hips slid down in to his pockets to give him a casual air as he eyed the massive display of candles all set up around the floor to form a giant heart shape, each of them different shades of red and pink.

“Just the candles would have been a lot. The ribbons made it too much. But replacing all the light bulbs with colored ones, that’s definitely going way too far. Please tell me you don’t have any other surprises hidden around here.” Kakashi was smiling despite the wariness in his tone, slipping the Hokage’s robe off his shoulders to hang it up in their front hall closet before picking his way over the display of candles.

Shikamaru waited until his partner had greeted him with a gentle kiss before admitting, “Well, I might have a few more things hidden up my sleeve.”

“Maa, at least tell me one of them involves food.”

“I’m surprised you couldn’t tell that for yourself. Did you scent seal your mask again?”

He watched Kakashi pull down the mask, amused to see there was indeed a seal on the inside, and resolved to have a private conversation with man’s secretary about wearing so much perfume when her boss had such a sensitive nose.

“Mm, I smell salmon.” Kakashi’s words were punctuated with a low rumble from his stomach.

“Yup. And you have your choice of dinner entertainment.” Shikamaru nearly broke down laughing at the sharp look that swung his way. “We can either play that couples board game Ino gave us last Christmas or Lee was hinting earlier that he would be willing to come by and serenade us for ‘added atmosphere’. I would just need to send him a clone.”

“Uh…wow…those are some, er, interesting choices.” Just watching his partner struggle with trying to form his sentences so they came out politely was painful. Shikamaru took pity on him much quicker than he’d planned to, already satisfied that he had finally won their silly little competition.

Reaching up to wrap both arms around that long pale neck, he asked, “Would you rather just play some shogi? We can kick this whole mess out of the way and eat on the floor while we play?”

He nearly laughed out loud when Kakashi sagged with relief.

“Thank kami. You’re an absolute menace. Remind me to never challenge you in this sort of thing again; I really thought you’d be too lazy to put in this kind of effort!”

Shikamaru hummed noncommittally and snapped a few shadow stitches out the snuff the candles without answering, not wanting to embarrass either of them with his mushy thoughts. But the truth was that when it came to Kakashi, the light of his heart, there was nothing in the world he would ever consider too much effort.


End file.
